The Great Urban Race and the Value of the Grocery Store

So we decided to hit up the Ybor Farmer's Market up the road from our house instead of driving all the way to St. Petersburg this weekend. Everything was great until we got closer to our destination. People dressed up like it was Halloween. Folks running around with no regard of the fact that folks were trying to commute while they blindly jaywalked. No parking near the market. So after walking 5 blocks from the parking garage I finally took notice to what was going on, the Great Urban Race. It's some sort of urban scavenger hunt it seems. No harm, I suppose, but it did add a level of craziness that I was hoping to avoid by staying local for our produce today.

Speaking of scavenger hunts, I came across something that could have been completely fantastic, but was completely quashed by my wife. So the produce vendor was selling cleaned pineapples, and over by the garbage can was a box full of pineapple tops. I already have one pineapple plant in a pot, and another that is soaking in water until it's root's form (which hasn't been going that well). I thought, "holy crap, that's a lot of free pineapple tops!" My wife's reaction was "I don't think it's right to dig through the trash take them". Well first and foremost, the tops were next to the garbage can in a box. Additionally, they were obviously garbage, and were obviously going to end up in a landfill with the cardboard boxes. Sadly, no free pineapple tops for me. If anyone else out there is looking to start a bunch of pineapple plants, I do recommend hitting up the Ybor Farmer's Market for the hook up.

After the farmer's market we ended up at El International Meat Market on MLK Blvd. Now I've been here a few times before to get beef tenderloins, and I've never been let down. Well until today, I suppose. The tenderloin we purchased was fairly small (15$ at 5.99$ per lb) which was fine, we're not the biggest folks. The sad part was how mangled it was, most of the meat ended up going towards sandwich meat since it was sliced open and not really capable of being used for fillets. I was able to salvage enough for a small carppachio dish and 3 steaks. Again, very disappointed. But hey, we can vote with our wallet and never set foot in that establishment again.

After that we ended up at Publix for what was going to be a short trip for a few staple items. Now here's a testament to the grocery store. Even though we've been shopping at the farmer's markets for produce and specialty markets for just about everything else, we were still able to spend 100$ at the Publix. Granted, part of that was dog food and charcoal, but those are still items that you can't find at the smaller markets. This experience has made me re-think my "no more chain stores" kick I've been on. Perhaps we can start making our own dog food?

Valentines Day Craziness

Even though it was Valentine's Day, our Saturday routine didn't deviate much. Farmer's market first, then Mazzaro's Italian market, and finally the Great American Natural Products for some dried spices. Even though the routine didn't change, the company and clientele did. My wife's aunt was in town so her and my mother-in-law met us out at the farmer's market. What was astounding was that my mother-in-law knew very little about the largest farmer's market in the south east, even though she lived in the vicinity. We live all the way in Tampa, so it's a 20 mile hike to get there (worth it for the selection). The other thing that astounded me was that she treated it more like a carnival than a place to get vegetables. Nothing wrong with that, but now my sister-in-law wants to make it out as well, and I'm assuming she's going to treat it the same way. It's just astonishing that people can have a great place to get produce right in their backyard, and they opt to be taken in by arts and crafts and not even pick up a couple of carrots or onions or something. Just seems like the whole point was lost.

Next came Mazzaro's Italian market. I love this place, but every week I find myself growing less and less in love with it based on the crowd. The crowd is beyond insane on Saturday's (and apparently Friday's as well). Valentine's day was a bit more over the top considering everybody that doesn't celebrate love all year round had decided to make a meal with "fancy" ingredients. Speaking of the Hallmark holiday, I did get my wife flowers delivered a day early on Friday the 13th. A conversation with a co-worker about the matter really put the holiday into perspective for me. He said, "I don't do the whole getting flowers thing, because it's so cliché. We're going to celebrate the holiday the way it's supposed to be treated by making a nice meal together and enjoying each other's company." Just peachy if you ask me, except there's a slip in that story. So you're only cooking the meal together because it's Valentine's day? The Hallmark holiday will continue to have relevance while people still have the desire to do something that they usually wouldn't do on that day. Albeit getting flowers, or spending time with a loved one, or what not. I do that year round for the most part, maybe not the flowers part, but we cook meals together and spend time with each other and as a family. So back around, the Italian market was a bit too hectic and started me thinking that we should try out the Tampa Bay Steak Company or one of the Italian / Spanish / Organic food store's in Tampa instead of Mazzaro's in St. Pete. The other alternative would be to have my wife hit Mazzaro's during the week, but that's an extra trip over the bridge I'd rather us not be making. Come summer time the Saturday Morning Market will be closed, so setting up an alternative now would be smart, and save some gas!

Life in Moderation

So I started writing my first post for this blog, and it got pretty long winded. Seemed like it defeated the mantra of the name, Life in Moderation.

My original intention for the domain was to set up a site to address my aversion to people that [insert verb] too much and then wonder why they are dealing with the after effects. If you eat more calories than your body burns in a day, you're going to gain weight. If you spend all your money on clothes and shoes and stop paying your mortgage, the bank's going to foreclose all over your parade. Aside from all the B&Ming there may have been some healthy recipes or something, who knows. I came to realize that the site would have majorly lacked content, so I waited.

Three months late and I finally came to realize what I should do with the domain name. After my family's trip to the farmer's market in Ybor City and part of the afternoon spent setting up my wife's herb garden, it hit me like a sack of potatoes! Life in Moderation is going to be a blog documenting me and my family's adventures (and misadventures) of getting into shape (physically and mentally) and attempting to live off the land as much as possible in the middle of the Tampa Bay Area.

Just to clarify, I'm not big on this whole "green" thing that's been creeping into everyone's vocabulary lately. It's too damn trendy for me and I have mixed feelings about certain facets of the lifestyle (expect a post on those grocery store "green" bags eventually). So don't expect me to give up on my charcoal grill to lower my carbon footprint or giving up meat for the good of the planet or anything like that. My greater purpose here is to stick it to the grocery stores. Far too long have I overpaid for under-caliber fruits and vegetables.